1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process, and to apparatus for carrying out the process, for curing binders on non-woven reinforcing materials, woven reinforcing materials and combinations thereof during their manufacture, and is more particularly concerned with utilizing directed energy which is focused for reaction on the binders without involving the reinforcing materials to a significant degree.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, it has been common in the art of manufacturing glass fiber mats, woven materials and other reinforcing materials to apply a binder to both assist in holding the reinforcing material together and promoting a better bond between a matrix resin and the reinforcing material during a subsequent molding process. These binders are usually dry, powder resins, but can be emulsions or liquids. The fiber materials are produced in a conventional manner for the type of construction desired. Normally, the binders are applied to the reinforcements and then subjected to heating, to melt, or dry-before-melt, and sometimes to cure the binders. This process uses significant quantities of energy as the entire mass of reinforcing material needs to be heated to the required melting and/or drying and/or reaction temperatures. The binder can be either unsaturated, cured or staged, depending on application requirements. In this connection, one may refer to U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,713 of Sakaguchi, et al, fully incorporated herein by this reference, particularly to column 4, beginning at line 27.
In conventional systems, many disadvantages are evident such as the large amount of energy required for involving the entire mass of reinforcing material, the size of the ovens required, the time required for heating and cooling and the production of volatiles that must be collected to prevent contamination of the environment.